Supporting residents through the cost-of-living crisis, boosting job opportunities, combatting climate change and protecting the local environment are the priorities of the draft budget currently being considered by Teignbridge councillors.

Before final decisions are made next month, residents are encouraged to comment on the council’s priorities via its annual budget survey.

As well as using Teignbridge’s share of the proposed council tax increase to provide a one-off £5.54 cost-of-living payment to all households liable to pay it on their main home on 1 April 2023, the draft budget proposes a range of other financial measures designed to support local people and build economic prosperity.

If the draft budget is approved next month, councillors will continue to provide 100% council tax support to those who need it most through its council tax reduction scheme and will for a second year provide £20,000 for town and parish councils to support local cleanliness initiatives through the ‘Tidy Teignbridge’ scheme.

Teignbridge will continue to invest in town centre regeneration and will provide £2 million capital investment in employment sites aimed at encouraging new and existing businesses to set up, move into and stay in the area, boosting business expansion and creating better paid jobs.

Councillors also want to continue to invest in the Teignbridge 100 affordable and social housing initiative which has seen the first council houses built in the district for decades.

To support local initiatives, each councillor will have a £1000 through the councillors’ community fund to back local good causes in their local wards.

By pitching for national grant funding and using the Community Infrastructure Levy – money it gets from new developments – the council will continue to invest in decarbonisation schemes, affordable homes and leisure facilities.

As well as completing the decarbonisation work at Forde House and bidding for more funding for Broadmeadow Sports Centre, it plans to invest £1.3 million in implementing the council’s carbon action plan which aims to cut emissions arising from the council’s vehicle fleet and its top 15 carbon polluting sites targeted. New electric vehicle charging points, thermal fabric building and energy efficiency improvements are also supported in the draft budget proposals.

And money will also be invested in the vital infrastructure essential to ease congestion and enable people to move around their localities including improvements to the A382, meeting its funding share of the Dawlish link road and bridge and providing more open spaces.

Executive Member for Corporate Resources, Cllr Richard Keeling said that councillors had “spent a lot of time looking at how the council could best help residents with the cost-of-living crisis and especially those struggling the most and had concluded that giving back to householders the Teignbridge share of the council tax increase was the best approach.”

Cllr Keeling explained that less than 9 pence in every pound raised by council tax comes to the District Council and from this Teignbridge provided the essential services that local people need such as recycling and collecting household waste, cleaning the streets, tackling graffiti and fly-tipping, provide car parks, ensuring food is safe, supporting people in need with housing and council tax reduction schemes as well as voluntary organisations.

“Our aim is to be as efficient as possible, using our share of council tax to provide responsive, effective services, and we think this budget represents the best way of achieving our goals and tackling the priorities of local people.”